Charming Ramona a Terrifical Adventure
Third grader Ramona Quimby (Joey King) likes to move to the beat of her own drum. She’s an original in love with making up words like ‘terrifical’ and who adores fantasizing about parachuting off of her back porch into a lush mysterious forest. Loving parents Robert (John Corbett) and Dorothy (Bridget Moynahan) support even their youngest daughter’s wildest flights of fancy they do try to get through to her that simple things like proper spelling are important, older sister Beezus (Selena Gomez) doing her best to be a proper role model while also trying her best not become exasperated by her sibling’s more extreme idiosyncrasies.
Selena Gomez and Joey King in Ramona and Beezus © 20th Century Fox
Ramona and Beezus is adapted from the series of books written by legendary children’s author Beverly Cleary. I remember reading a bunch of these as a kid, adoring Ramona’s adventures just as much as anyone else my age would have. While I don’t necessarily recall the particulars that’s perfectly okay because it’s how they made me feel that mattered, the smile they’d put on my face a treasured memory I’ve held dear for almost three decades now.
Working from a script by Laurie Craig (Ella Enchanted) and Nick Pustay (Camille), director Elizabeth Allen (whose 2006 mermaid adventure Aquamarine is highly underrated) did a splendid job of making me feel all those warm and comforting feelings I had as a child reading Cleary’s books all over again. This is as intoxicating a G-rated family adventure as any I’m likely to see this year, a captivating wonder from first frame to last, this movie a truly spellbinding delight young and old alike should equally revel in.
Young King (you might remember her as the infected child in Quarantine) is just divine as Ramona. She brings Cleary’s character to life with joyful effervescence, and while I think every child has fantasized about filling her signature red boots this little dynamo of an actress does just that beautifully. She hits all the right notes, nothing feeling false or off, and even when using burrs to make a princess crown or helping her father draw the longest picture in the world little King is the queen around which this film revolves.
An even bigger surprise is Gomez. While I’ll admit to not getting overly annoyed by her Disney Channel series “The Wizards of Waverly Place” or in finding her and fellow starlet Devi Lovato’s The Princess Protection Program a chore to sit through, I can’t exactly say she’d been my first choice for Beezus. But low and behold she’s kind of darling in the role, bringing layers of depth and understanding to the part I wasn’t quite prepared for. There’s a beautiful scene of her and King having to deal with a sad bit of tragedy all on the own, while a latter bedside moment also between the two sisters managed to bring an honestly earned tear to my eye. The simple fact is that Gomez has potential and Allen gets her to deliver on it, and any reservation I might have had before about the teenager are now vanished thanks to this performance.
The rest of the adult cast is spot-on across the board. Corbett digs into his bag of tricks going back to his easygoing “Northern Exposure” roots to bring Robert to life, while Moynahan is just lovely making Dorothy one of the more three-dimensional parental figures to hit theatres in quite some time. Ginnifer Goodwin makes for a sublime Aunt Bea, while a winsome and engaging Josh Duhamel is positively charming as the semi-mysterious and good-hearted neighbor Hobart.
I do have worries. Is it too quiet for modern audiences? By choosing to play things in a mostly realistic manner will fans of hyperactive Disney sitcoms or annoyingly obnoxious drivel like Diary of a Wimpy Kid have the attention spans for something this simple? And, while it certainly isn’t quiet and while the film definitely has its quirks, will its reliance on character, place and plot keep it from the mass audience acceptance it so unquestionably deserves?
My hope is that audiences both young and old embrace the movie for the enchanting piece of family entertainment that it is. Craig and Pustay’s script supplies a series of solid moments veering from light to dark and back again with a childlike innocence that’s both unexpected and intoxicating. They, like Cleary, show a fearless determination to present children with concepts and ideas (including the death of a pet and current economic hardships) that might seem alien or too intense on the surface. But they do it in a way that doesn’t talk down or coddle and is perfectly acceptable and easy to understand. They get that kids can handle the tough, the hard stuff making the fluff that much more pleasantly enjoyable.
Ramona and Beezus is easily one of the summer’s most wondrous surprises. It is a family frolic I absolutely adored. In short, it’s terrifical, and while I know that’s not technically a word it’s the only one that perfectly encapsulates my feelings for this priceless motion picture.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
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